Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Business Administration

Energy Trading and Financial Services

The team of the Chair of Energy Trading and Financial Services, consisting of Prof. Rüdiger Kiesel and seven colleagues, focuses on the stochastic modelling of financial and energy markets and, in particular, on the assessment and risk management of derivative financial products. One focal point for our research is the analysis of the effects of model uncertainty (model risk). More specifically, recent studies have been dedicated to the evaluation of fossil-fuel power plants and the development of trading strategies on short-term (Intraday) energy markets, which are intended to be robust with respect to the used model.

In a wider context, the developed methodology will be presented within the scope of an interdisciplinary research project funded by the Funk Foundation called “Big Risks: The perception and management of critical social risks in the 21st century”. This research project is being implemented together with colleagues who focus on practical philosophy and empirical political science. The adequate modelling of “Big Risks” with respect to their ethical, financial, political and social aspects, as well as the normative desirable handling of “Big Risks”, will be examined while taking the long-term nature of the decisions made today and the consequences of these into account. One focal point is the analysis of climate change from the different starting points of the involved disciplines. The contribution of the research group is a systematic assessment of the robustness of the results with respect to the occurring model uncertainties.

Work, Personnel and Organization

The team of the Chair of Work, Personnel and Organization conducts research into two topics. First, it examines the effects of different forms of work regulation: What effects, for example, do temporary work and the use of service contracts have on employees, companies and society? The participation of employees also regulates the working world. Recently, a representative survey of 3,203 people was conducted with financial support from the Hans Böckler Foundation. Respondents were not only able to respond to predetermined questions, but also to freely express their associations with terms such as “employee participation” and “works council”. Our findings show that the vast majority of respondents associate participation with positive terms and support it. Although employers also associate participation with positive things, they reject the concept of equal influence for employees. In a second, relatively new area we are exploring the social (linguistic) representations of business organisations. We have analysed, among other things, how banks use language to justify redundancies. Having analysed 6,700 pages from employee newsletters, annual reports, speeches, press releases and investor news, one partial result is the following: The imagery used often has military connotations (“offensive”, “cost discipline”). Negative terms such as “cost reduction” are avoided, while positive words such as “saving” are preferred. Overall, the research focuses on the social conditions and the social and economic consequences of organizational innovation, especially of work.